Sad day in Stokerville

I have used both and will not use anything other than my BBQ Gurus now. The ease of use, the amazing customer service and the fact that they do not take a Degree in Mechanical Engineering to use make it a no brainer. Go with the Guru, you will not be disappointed....

-Kevin

 
Sorry to hear the news. It is frustrating when you are waiting for something and wanting to get using it.

Kent

promises promises, but he still got your money - shame on them for charging and not delivering - not even sure that is legal!

cough cough cough......CyberQ.......cough cough cough

Actually the DigiQ, CyberQ and NanoQ are water resistant. While I do cover mine with a Ziploc the Ziploc has blown off during rain storms more than a few times during troops cooks. I assure you they are all still running..

Not sure what is going on with Rock these days, but he rarely makes his presence known here. Bob and Hatch have..

That answering phone calls and emails is a biggie.

Now I didn't have a problem setting up my Stoker, but it does take a level of technical expertise just to get the web interface to work.

I don't own a CyberQ so I can't say how easy it is to setup, but the NanoQ and the DigiQ were a snap to get run and running.

What size fan is recommended for the stoker in an XL BGE?

Bobby-Q wrote:

Umm..did you read the post?

Customer service...they will answer the phone and e-mails.
Easy to use...does not require a mechanical engineering degree.

Just those 2 things make the gurus a better choice.

Just saying.

Not wanting to get in a huge argument here and I am concede, undoubtedly Bobby, you have much more knowledge and experience than I.

Yes I did read the post(s).

Mechanical Engineering degree, no. Ability to read the manual once will get someone through using the Stoker. However, I may need and electrical engineering degree to get the q2 to control 2 or more eggs or monitor 2 or more pieces of food cooking.

Once the Stoker has been set up then using it the second time is the same as the q2. set the pit temp and set the food temp.

I never have given Stoker a plus for customer communication or fast delivery, and have many times let it be know that it took a couple of weeks after ordering my Stoker to get it. In my case one of the probes were not in stock.

I have not had any problems with my Stoker. I have had problems with my DigiQII. The Guru Folks handled the problem promptly and had good communication, which I have said many times over.

The Stoker will do things that neither the digi or cyber products can do.

I do own and use both the Stoker and DigiQII.

IMO I don't think it is right to bash or put a bad light on Stoker or for that matter the q2.

Just a little clarification of what I was getting at.

Kent

"Not sure what is going on with Rock these days, but he rarely makes his presence known here. Bob and Hatch have.."

It does seem the Guru folks jump in when needed.

"That answering phone calls and emails is a biggie."

I agree 110%, not the business model I would want projected.

The Guru folks over time had had their shipping delays too. Not nearly to the extent we are seeing with Rocky though.

"Now I didn't have a problem setting up my Stoker, but it does take a level of technical expertise just to get the web interface to work."

If someone doesn't own a router then, maybe. However, it really isn't hard to plug and ethernet cable into the back of the stoker and plug the other end into a router. Two button pushes and one can read the IP address and then type that address into the browser. I guess that is classified as technical. But it really isn't hard after one has done it one time.

"I don't own a CyberQ so I can't say how easy it is to setup, but the NanoQ and the DigiQ were a snap to get run and running."

I don't think I would have a use for the Nano. With the q2, turning on or off the ramp, alarms, display scroll, setting alarms, volume of alarms, turning dome open or closed and setting other features in no easier on the q2 than it is on the Stoker. Actually when the Stoker is on the computer those settings are easier than doing it on the q2.

When I use the q2 remote monitoring I need to also use the Maverick.

I really like both the Stoker and the DigiQII. I wouldn't want to have to get rid of either one and doing it all over again I would buy both.

Kent

Most folks don't want to run a cable from their cooker into the house, down the hall and into a bedroom where their router is. Like me, for example, lol. So setting up a WAP or game adapter to do wireless is a bit of a challenge.

When will one of these folks make a wireless model, just like my new printer? Killer.

I've been fairly mono-thematic with my posts over the past few months trying to dispel the myth that Stokers are overly complicated.

Yes, you need to set your Stoker to communicate with your home wireless network. You can learn anything from the internet these days. and even a person with no knowledge of port forwarding can get the help needed to get their Stoker working, if they want to. It takes about 15 minutes to half-an-hour to get your Stoker set up into your wireless network, but once you have done that, it is a one-time configuration. After that, you are good to go! If you have an Apple setup, this is about as simple as using an Airport Express to stream iTunes through your home stereo, or use an AE for wireless printing.

After it's set, all you ever have to do with the Stoker is plug in the probes, turn it on, and then go enter all your temperature and communication settings into your computer. You can leave your Stoker set to cook at 250º, and never touch another button than the on/off button.

The Stoker is highly versatile, so if you don't know what you want to do with it, I guess it could seem complex. You can use it wirelessly, or you can put it next to your Egg and run an ethernet cable to your router; or you can position the Stoker next to your router inside and run 50 feet of stereo microphone wires to your Egg to connect to your pit/temp/fan probes.

The Guru is a great product if you want to use the unit itself to make all the settings and to monitor the cook. IMO, the Guru products are very nice, but the CyberQ is a failure; based on what I have found on the internet, no one has been successful in connecting their CyberQ to their computer unless the computer is within 5-10 feet of the CyberQ. The implementation does not achieve the intent of the product, and I would not be at all surprised to see a CyberQIIi revision in the near future to address this short-coming.

Mark

 
Not over my head, I am pretty tall.

Check some of your past posts where you said you didn't use the eggs because you needed more room.

Having more functions or capability available is a convenience.

As to the watch with regards to the egg, why even use a powered vent solution at all, the egg can easily hold the temperatures.

GG

We aren't talking Egg size, we are talking bells and whistles on a controller that aren't really necessary.

I'd agree that, for the typical backyard smoker, some of the things I'm talking about wouldn't be cost-effective or maybe even desirable. But for the serious competitor who is trying to eliminate variables to his or her cooking process, some of them would be invaluable, things like:

* Startup mode to prevent overshoot of pit temperature on lighting

* Pit time and temperature profiles that can be preset, tweaked, saved and recalled for cooks.

* Ramping between temperatures to prevent the controller from going to full output during transitions.

* Ability to monitor and/or control to several temperatures within one cooking chamber, with fail-over in case of a thermocouple fault

* Use of variable-speed fans as opposed to duty-cycle fans of large capacity to prevent kicking up of ash onto food and to more closely control air flow and temperature

* Ability to detect and alarm when a fire's fuel is running low before cooking chamber temperature drops

Of course, this would all be in addition to the usual high and low temperature alarms, "hold" mode, etc. Depending on how fancy a client wanted to get, previous trends of cooks could be saved and compared for recipe tweaking.

some people just get a stiffy for technology. :laugh: i dunno. the egg is a charcoal cooker. i got it because it held temps rock steady.

count me among the (apparently few) who think the thing does fine without wires and bells

I think a sign one of my fellow engineers had at his desk said it best:

"Technology is a tool, not a strategy."

If you are implementing technology for the sake of it, you're going to be disappointed by the results when the "gee whiz" factor wears off. If, OTOH, you are trying to overcome problems in your process - whatever those may be - and there is a reliable, cost-effective and applicable technology available to address those problems, then implementing the technology will free you up to refine the parts of your process still left to human discretion and judgement.

I look at some of these competitors on BBQ Pitmasters and just shake my head when they're blindsided by any number of things that could have a cheap, simple control system running and/or monitoring.